Aerts Stein, Hassan Bassem
Laboratory of Computational Biology, KU Leuven School of Medicine, Leuven, Belgium.
Fly (Austin). 2011 Jul-Sep;5(3):221-3. doi: 10.4161/fly.5.3.15542. Epub 2011 Jul 1.
Perhaps the most fundamental aspect of development is the acquisition by a cell of a terminal and stable fate because it marks the usually irreversible commitment to a specific morphology and function. Understanding the molecular mechanisms that control this process has profound implications for stem cell biology and cancer research. Because cell fate commitment is regulated by transcription factors acting as master switches, a mechanistic understanding of the process requires revealing the gene regulatory networks downstream of these factors. We discuss the biological functions of the proneural targetome in the light of signaling pathways, and the recent progress on computational target gene predictions using cisTargetX.
也许发育过程最基本的方面是细胞获得终末且稳定的命运，因为这标志着通常对特定形态和功能的不可逆承诺。理解控制这一过程的分子机制对干细胞生物学和癌症研究具有深远意义。由于细胞命运决定是由充当主开关的转录因子调控的，对这一过程的机制性理解需要揭示这些因子下游的基因调控网络。我们根据信号通路讨论神经前体靶标组的生物学功能，以及使用cisTargetX进行计算靶基因预测的最新进展。
